1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to debris removal in general and in particular to a method and apparatus for clearing debris from an area by the use of a central blower.
2. Description of Related Art
Clearing of loose items such as snow, dry leaves and debris from an area is commonly done by manually sweeping with a broom stick, to collect the scattered loose items in one place for pick-up and throw into the trash-bin. This being a manual process is difficult to be executed in large areas.
For large areas, electrically operated blowers are commonly used. The blowers blow out air under the action of a fan-assembly. The blower is provided with the electrically operable fan-assembly connected to a tube with a nozzle. In operation, the user can hold the tube and sway it around near the surface to be cleaned so that the pressurized air from the fan-assembly can drift away the loose items. Often the fan-assembly is to be carried by the user (generally on the shoulder) while swaying the tube around with the nozzle being closer to the area. With such a model, the user needs to support the weight of the fan-assembly and also there is significant loss of air pressure by the time the pressurized air from the fan-assembly reaches the tip of the nozzle. Hence in order to achieve a certain level of the air pressure at the nozzle, the fan-assembly needs to deliver extra pressure at the cost of extra electric power to compensate for the loss en route. In certain models, the fan-assembly is provided with wheels for placing on the ground and moving around. Though this is advantageous for the user for not having to carry around, the user needs to navigate the wheeled fan-assembly around in addition to the tube with the nozzle. This is cumbersome particularly when used on an un-leveled terrain.